Title: Eyes of the Chosen
Author: Emcee
Summary: Remus, Sirius and Sakura examine the murder victim while Harry and Hermione discuss Ron's vision.
Author's Note: Thank-you to my muses, Rae and Fre and my beta and Pablo. This story is AU to "Order of the Phoenix". It is the sequel to Labyrinth of Illusion.

Disclaimer: "Harry Potter" and the characters, places and things related to it do not belong to me. They are from the brilliant mind of JK Rowling. They belong to her and her publishers. I am not making any profit from this fan fiction.

CHAPTER THREE
The Body

"Merlin..." Sirius turned his head away from the corpse, which still had copious amounts of blood flowing down its cheeks. "The spell kept the blood fresh."

Sakura threw her hands over her mouth. Her eyes went wide as she convulsed. Nearly tripping over her own feet, she fled the room.

Remus started towards the door, but stopped partway. He turned to Sirius, shrugging slightly.

"Go," Sirius said, nodding, "find out what's wrong with her. I can handle this."

"Thanks," Remus sighed in relief, following Sakura out the door.


Sakura had skidded on the floor of Hogwarts, falling to her knees. She bowed her head, taking in hard, shallow breath. She shut her eyes, feeling the stinging tears. She began to heave.

A pair of hands touched her shoulders. "Sakura?"

"She's dead."

Remus raised an eyebrow. "You're just realizing this now?"

"This whole thing used to be easier," Sakura murmured. She leaned against Remus. "Looking at dead bodies. Seeing blood and gore."

"Easier?" Remus furrowed his brow. "When was it easier?"

"When Yasha was… When she was with me. It wasn't as... Real." Sakura sighed. "Look at a girl like that, dead and bloody... I used to..."

"Like it." Remus nodded. He wrapped an arm around Sakura's shoulder. "Your blood would start to race as you looked over the dead body... Part of you wished you had caused the carnage..."

Sakura blinked at Remus. "Empathy, thy name is Remus."

"Sakura, the last thing I want to do is sound harsh..." Remus stood up. "Get over it. We need to find out who this girl is."

She nodded. "And why Voldemort wanted her dead."

"That's my girl," Remus gave Sakura a small smile. "Come on."

They walked back to the classroom slowly, stopping in the doorway. Sirius was standing over the girl's body. He had pulled her sleeves up. A large, black tattoo marred her forearm.

"Sirius?" Remus started to move forward, but thought better of it. He stopped halfway between Sirius and the door.

Sirius looked at the young woman's arm. He then focused his gaze on his own. "This girl... I know who she is."


Hermione rubbed the sleep out of her eyes, feeling dull pain all over her body. She was still feeling battered from the day she had spent in the Labyrinth. She sat up, focusing her eyes on the figure pacing in front of the beds.

"Harry?" Hermione stifled a yawn, brushing a stray hair out of her face. "What's wrong?"

"It's Ron." Harry stopped pacing, sitting down at the foot of Hermione's bed. He swallowed hard.

Hermione's eyes had gone wide, looking over to Ron's bed. He was there, sleeping soundly. "He's all right, isn't he?"

"Physically, yeah. But..." Harry paused. He looked over to Ron, warring with himself. Should he tell Hermione what Ron had told him last night? They had never tried to keep secrets from each other. Yet Ron seemed so upset with what had happened... Maybe it wasn't a good idea...

"Ronhadavision," the words spilled out of Harry's mouth before he was able to stop himself.

Hermione's jaw dropped, eyebrows raised. "Another one?"

"What do you mean 'another one'?" Harry shook his head. "Ron's never had a vision before."

Hermione bit her lip, casting her gaze downwards. "Actually, he has. When you were... Not... you. He had a vision of you killing us. Of course, it didn't come to pass. I don't really put much stock in these kind of things but..." She took a deep breath. "But he seemed to physically hurt. That's a sign of a true vision, you know. I just don't know why Ron is having visions." She cocked her head questioningly. "What was his vision about?"

"He didn't really say. He seemed really nervous about the whole thing. He mentioned someone dying. He also seemed to be in pain. He was clutching his head."

Hermione's tongue was clenched between her teeth as she went through her thought processes. "Do you think it's true? Do you think Ron really saw someone dying?"

"I don't know. Trelawney always made it seem like visions were something that only something really special people had."

"Trying to make yourself special in yet another way, Harry?" Hermione shook her head. "True seers, people with the capability to see the future for no apparent reason are quite rare, but... Visions aren't. With enough concentration, visions can be very common. And your visions, you get them because you have a connection to Voldemort."

"That still doesn't explain Ron's vision."

"Had to tell her, didn't you?"

Both Harry and Hermione turned to see Ron was now awake. He was sitting up in bed, arms crossed tightly over his chest. "I couldn't tell you something in confidence, could I?" His voice was filled with bitterness. "The whole group has to know."

"Ron, Harry was right to tell me!" Hermione gingerly rose from her bed, padding over to the seat next to Ron's bed. "There's something wrong."

"How come when there's something wrong with Harry," Ron spat, "We're supposed to leave him alone. But when there's something wrong with me everyone has to know."

Harry winced. "I wanted you to leave me alone... Because I didn't know..." He felt the prickle of threatening tears. No, he wouldn't let himself cry. "It wasn't me," he added feebly.

Hermione took Ron's arm. "I cared about what was wrong with Harry, just like I care about what's wrong with you. This is a big thing! If you've had another vision, we have to figure out how and why."

"You don't believe in visions anyway!" Ron protested.

"I never said that," Hermione sniffed defiantly.

Ron nodded, rolling his eyes. "Oh? Then why did you drop Divinations?"

"I dropped Divinations because Trelawney is an old fraud. She doesn't know what she's talking about. I've done quite a lot of research on Divinations on my own, thank you very much."

"Is that where you got all of this information from?" Ron let out a grunt. "I don't know what you two are making such a big deal about. I told you last night, Harry: I had a very vivid nightmare."

Hermione turned back to Harry. "Well, it's possible it could have just been a nightmare. I mean, nightmares are common after a traumatic experience. I remember, summer after first year, I had a recurring nightmare of a flaming chess queen chasing me around with a troll club."

"But," Harry got up, resuming his pacing. "Ron's dream doesn't make any sense. It's not at all related to the Labyrinth or anything we just went through."

"Harry.... Dreams don't always make sense." Hermione sighed deeply. "But this still sounds suspicious. I think we should tell Professor Dumbledore."

"No!" Ron fiercely hissed. "I'm not telling Dumbledore I had a nightmare! He'll think I'm crazy!"

Harry stopped pacing. He walked to Ron's bed, sitting down. "How about Sirius? He won't think your crazy. We need to tell someone, Ron."

Ron considered this. He liked Sirius a lot. He was an adult, but he didn't seem like it. There was also the talk he had with Ron, after his death-experience on the Quidditch pitch. "Okay. We can tell Sirius. Only Sirius. He's got to swear he won't tell anyone else."

Harry nodded. "Okay. That's fair. We just have to find Sirius."

Hermione glanced into the nurse's office. "Do you think we can sneak out of here?" Madame Pomfrey was in the office, talking to the Weasleys and the Grangers.

"Getting passed Madame Pomfrey, that's easy," Ron sighed. "My mum... That's another matter." He smiled. "I guess we can't go tell Sirius."

"Oh, come on!" Harry grabbed Ron's hand. "We're just going to walk out the door. We'll be back in a few minutes. We have to tell Sirius now. If we don't..." A smug smile spread across Harry's face. "Then I'm going to tell your parents."

"You wouldn't!" Ron's eyes flew open. "Mum would be fussing over me even more than she is. Cold compresses on the head... Babying me..."

"Then we better go find Sirius, shouldn't we?" Harry looked to Hermione. She smiled back at him, rising from her seat. Harry took one of Ron's arms while Hermione took the other. They had to drag him out of the bed, his feet barely moving.

"We don't even know where Sirius is!" Ron hissed, looking back and forth between his friends. "I mean, he's not in here, is he? He should be, but he's not! He could be anywhere in the castle. Or he could be in the village. Or he could be on a mission for Dumbledore."

"Ron, Sirius is a wanted criminal. I don't think he's going to be going to far." Hermione patted Ron on the shoulder. "It's not going to be that bad."

"I'm just saying, how are we going to find him?"

Harry let go of Ron. He went to his bedside table, retrieving his wand. "That's simple, Ron."

"What's simple?" Ron let his two best friends drag him into the corridor. He shook his head sadly.

"Accio Marauder's Map!" Harry quietly commanded, waving his wand. They waited in silence for a few moments. Soon enough, the yellowed parchment was whizzing through the corridors, landing neatly in Harry's hand.

Hermione gaped at Harry. "When did you get the Marauder's Map back from Moody?"

"Just now." Harry looked over the parchment. "I had a hunch he would leave it with Dumbledore. I mean, what would Moody need a map of Hogwarts for now that he's back in retirement?"

"You just stole that from Dumbledore?" Hermione reached over, whacking Harry in the shoulder, which jostled both him and Ron.

"I'm not stealing. It's mine. Fred and George gave it to me." He pointed his wand at the map. "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good!"

Green ink spiderwebbed over the parchment, displaying a map of Hogwarts. There were a few sparse dots wandering around. The school was quite empty, with it still being Christmas Holiday.

"Sirius is in the Transfigurations classroom," Harry announced to Ron and Hermione, "Along with Remus and..." He hesitated, swallowing hard. "Miss Tsukino."

"Well, let's wait until Sirius is alo--" Ron started. He cut himself off when Harry and Hermione shook their heads at him.

"Fine!" He pushed his friends off of him, adjusting his pyjamas. "At least let me walk on my own!"

Harry and Hermione strode ahead, Ron falling behind. He mumbled expletives under his breath, finding some very creative ways to insult both Harry and Hermione.

Ron stared at his feet as he walked slowly towards the Transfigurations classroom. He was so focused on them; he didn't even notice Harry and Hermione stop dead in the doorway to the classroom. He ran into Harry's back. "Ow!"

"What are you doing here?" Sirius demanded. "You shouldn't see this."

"Oh my God..." Hermione put a hand to her mouth, stifling a cry.

Ron pushed forward to see what Harry and Hermione were staring at.

He felt his heart stop in his chest. His whole body felt like it was a thousand pounds heavier as he slowly approached the girl lying out on McGonagall's desk.

"Ron, keep away," Remus warned.

Ron couldn't hear. He put his hand on the girl's forehead, mouth slightly open. "This girl..."

"What is it?" Sirius asked, his tone much gentler than it had been a moment ago.

"This is the girl I saw." Ron looked up. "I had a vision of her death. She was murdered by Death Eaters."

 

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